Northern lights visible Wednesday morning

WHEATON, Minnesota - It was an amazing and surreal spectacle in the skies over Minnesota Wednesday morning as the northern lights were seen glowing and flashing overhead.

The phenomenon is also known as the Aurora Borealis and is caused by something called a coronal mass ejection or C-M-E. That is when the sun releases a massive burst of solar wind, sending billions of particles into space.

NASA says the C-M-E hit Earth's magnetic field last weekend. It caused a geomagnetic storm that we see here on Earth as the northern lights.

NASA also says C-M-E's can affect electronic systems in satellites and on the ground.